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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Parent to Parent Rant - Close the Party House

If you've been a high school teacher or administrator for any length of time you know that kids party. You hear the talk in the halls and in your classroom; you know they drink to excess and do stupid stuff. You also wish you could convince them to do otherwise but hold on to the memories of the stupid stuff you did in high school and the fact that your teachers couldn't tell you anything either.

When I listened to students recount their weekends one thing that always burned me up was stories of 'party houses.' You know those houses where the parents would look the other way or worse, join in, while the kids partied the night away.

Rather than rant myself I thought I'd share a post written by a concerned parent to the party house parent. While it's easy to envision the party house parent as being covered with tattoos, piercings, and whatnot and the ranting parent being a 50s knock off mom, that happens not to be the case. In this case, the exact opposite is true. The parents writing the post own a local tattoo shop and the parent being ranted at is a poster-child for the all American family.

I while I don't agree 100% with the writer, I think its worth a read so check out the following excerpt and click through at the end to read the rest ...

Last night our son made a choice and that choice has consequences. You see…we believe in holding our kids accountable for their actions but it seems that is rare with parents these days. Welcome to “GENERATION E” The generation of ENTITLEMENT.

Some of our friends and family may not agree with the public humiliation of our son by posting the picture of him covered in vomit, hugging a trash can, but we would hope it will serve as a purpose.

Do not put yourself in situations that people can take pictures of your dumb ass in vulnerable, self depreciating positions

Notifying the rest of our friends who have teenage children what they have to look forward to.

The long-lasting memories of that one bad choice that will be forever floating in cyberspace (and potentially framed on our living room wall)

However, there are more disturbing issues at hand. My husband and I do not have unrealistic expectations of teenagers and what they do when parents are not around. Here is the kicker…a parent WAS around. So that tells me a few things:

The teenage host of the party knows that her parents will buckle under the pressure to give her what she wants.

The parent is fearful of losing their daughter’s love and acceptance, so they enable bad behavior in an effort to promote their daughter’s social status instead of saying no.

You can hold yourself above others based on your bank account, career and outward appearance, but your actions to overlook what happens in your home is what makes you common.